Pollino, the largest national park of Italy, set between Basilicata and Calabria with its 192 thousand hectares, tries its hardest challenge. That is to make the uncontaminated environments and the most refined contemporary art coexist in the Lucania side. Since the end of July it will start the ArtePollino. Un altro Sud project, that brings to the Sinni Valley, Frido Valley and Sarmento Valley, some international artists of the calibre of Anish Kapoor, Carsten Höller and Giuseppe Penone, in order to realize some impressive site-specific works specially conceived to live in a deep symbiosis with the environmental context.

As a part of the Sensi Contemporanei programme, promoted by Basilicata Region, the Ministries of Economic Development and Cultural Activities and Heritage and the Venice Biennale Foundation, the project boasts its prestigious scientific committee, with Vincente Todolì, the Director of Tate Modern of London, as a member too.

The best is in the surprise. Amid the fields sorrounded by rock faces, the wild forests that are run through by deep gorges that suddenly open up to lunar stone torrents, so, in this dense thicket paths that intrigue the hiking and trekking lovers, but also they who search for ideal places to do sports, as the mountain bike, rafting, canyoning, it is possible to discover surprising and unexpected presences.

As a rift in the earth that lengthen for forty-five meters, a “theatre” made of trees and stones, circle-shaped, with a diameter of one hundred and twenty-five meters or also a proper merry-go-round as in the land of toys, which is able to accomodates twenty-four persons, to give them, through its slowly movement, a breathtaking view.

The installations-works are three, by Anish Kapoor, Giuseppe Penone and Carsten Höller, they will be open to the public since the end of July, but they will be reachable since the 5th September, “works – as Vincente Todolì says – that are able to interpret the spirit of the place and at the same time draw the world's attention to this territory”.

The Anglo-Indian Anish Kapoor works in the thermal baths of Latronico, in the Sinni Valley, a natural scenery of great beauty that goes across Episcopia, passing the spectacular erosions of Serra della Cerrosa, until Senise, in the reservoir of the Monte Cotugno dam. Here there is the mark of  “Earth Cinema”, a “cut” which has been hollowed in the earth, in which people could enter from both sides.

In this new speleological dimension, a long embrasure will allow you to see the extraordinary natural landscape, making you feel as a part of it. The Belgian Carsten Höller operates in San Severino Lucano, in the Frido Valley, one of the most evocative places of the park (not to be missed  it is a visit to the Gole del Frido- gorges of Frido - and to the water mills, built between the 14th   and the 17th centuries and recently restored).

As a famous artist for his playful and provocative works, ironic and devious at the same time, which undermine the certitudes of the spectator, Höller brings “RB Ride”, a big merry-go-round with twelve arms for twenty-four persons, located on the top f a scenic hill with a view on the valley: it will rotate as an authentic merry-go-round, but at an almost maddeningly slow pace.

The expert touch of Giuseppe Penone arrives to Noepoli in the Sarmento Valley, along a torrent, from where you can also go for wonderful walks, as the one along the splendid Gole della Garavina- gorges of Garavina – until Casa del Conte, an hamlet with farms sourrounded by fields and woods.

As a master of Arte Povera, Penone realizes its circle-shaped “Vegetal Theatre” by natural elements, trees, bushes, stones, with a stretch of water in the middle between the audience and the stage: “a place that is part of the region's landscape, created by vegetal elements which limit the spaces and the parts”, the artist points out.

The best of the Pollino is its inexhaustible stock of cultural proposals, that have an elective affinity with nature. Among the arboreal rites of Rotonda, Castelsaraceno, Terranova di Pollino and Viggianello, the pepper and red aubergine festivals, it also stands out the Pollino Music Festival fourteenth edition in the small town of San Severino Lucano, near Potenza, with a free entrance, from 6th to 19th of August, in which the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, the Almamegretta, Andrea Rivera, the Sud Sound System, Capone & Bungt Bangt will go on stage to have a musical show entirely played by using recycled material.

From 25th July to 3rd August, in the heart of the park, there is also the Pollino Danza Festival.

Dal 25 luglio al 3 agosto nel cuore del parco c’è anche il Pollino Danza Festival. Useful news - Associazione Culturale ArtePollino, Via Giovanni Falcone, 3 Latronico (PZ).

Telefono: 0973-859455, toll-free number: 800292020 (13th July 2009)